Building the Future of Healthcare: Innovation, Investment, and the Hard Work of Follow-Through

Hi, Kevin McDonnell here. Every week I share my round-up of the most interesting stories from the world of HealthTech I've been reading so you can find the ideas, people, innovations and technologies that are shaping the future of healthcare. Don't forget to follow me or our page for more insights every day.

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Let’s start with the latest from Google, which introduced Med-GEMMA, a set of AI models specifically trained on medical data. It’s the kind of innovation that shows both the power and limitations of AI in healthcare. While there’s plenty of promise in how these models can augment decision-making or streamline diagnostics, the piece also highlights the ongoing tension: these systems aren’t always ready to stand alone. They still need the context, nuance and experience that human professionals bring to the table. It’s a reminder that we’re still figuring out how AI and clinicians can work side by side, productively, and safely.

But who should be driving that integration? That question came up in this article debating whether healthcare leaders should build or buy their AI tools. On the surface, it’s a classic business decision - cost, control, scalability. But in healthcare, the implications are weightier. Build too slowly, and you miss out on vital capabilities. Buy too fast, and you risk implementing solutions that aren’t fit for your specific needs or workforce. Either way, the takeaway is clear: leadership needs to be deeply involved. You can’t outsource the thinking behind your tech strategy.

It’s encouraging to see so many organisations leaning into that mindset. Foresight Group’s investment in a paediatric healthtech platform already used in nearly 50 NHS hospitals stands out. Rather than chasing a “big bang” solution, this is a bet on something already proving useful on the ground. There’s something to be said for scaling what’s working, rather than constantly reinventing.

That pragmatic approach is also evident in Ireland, where a new €34M HealthTech Hub is being set up in Galway. It’s a serious commitment to translating innovation into commercial and clinical reality. What’s particularly smart here is that the hub is focused on commercialisation, not just invention. It reflects a growing awareness: in healthtech, building the product is only half the battle, getting it adopted and used is where the real impact happens.

And speaking of scale, London-based Numan just raised €51.6M to grow its preventative digital healthcare model. It’s an area of huge potential, but it raises some challenging questions. For all our talk about prevention, we often wait until people are sick to take action. Numan’s model is attempting to change that, but doing so means rethinking not just technology, but incentives, access, and public expectations. (Congrats Sokratis Papafloratos and team).

The UK government seems to recognise some of that complexity. Their new life sciences sector plan aims to accelerate innovation while growing the economy, a classic dual goal that looks good on paper, but is tricky in practice. Can you fast-track life sciences innovation and still keep the NHS affordable and equitable? That’s a question that keeps coming up, especially in light of the NHS’s new 10-year health plan, which openly acknowledges something we don’t hear often enough: the NHS can’t do this alone. The future of healthcare will need cross-sector collaboration, new partnerships, and probably a few uncomfortable trade-offs along the way.

That theme (meeting people where they are) is at the core of the government’s push for neighbourhood health services. It’s an idea that makes intuitive sense: bring care closer to communities, both physically and relationally. But turning that idea into action means rethinking staffing, data access, and funding mechanisms, all of which are already under strain.

To help with some of those barriers, the government is also rolling out Innovator Passports, a tool designed to help speed up NHS adoption of promising innovations. On the one hand, this is a much-needed response to the classic “valley of death” between pilot and scale. On the other, we’ll need to watch carefully to see whether these passports result in real uptake—or simply more paperwork.

And finally, in a rare win for common sense, this BBC piece showcases a digital healthcare intervention that worked, without fanfare or overengineering. It’s a reminder that sometimes the best innovations aren’t the flashiest ones, but the ones that quietly solve real problems, for real people.

As I sit with all of this, what stands out is how much of the future will be determined not by breakthroughs, but by follow-through. Most of the technology we need already exists, or is rapidly getting there. The hard part is aligning vision, incentives and infrastructure so that these tools make a difference at scale, not just in pilots or PowerPoint decks.

Would love to hear what you think, especially if you’ve seen examples of great follow-through in healthcare or tech more broadly. What's working where you are?

Enjoy the weekend.

• Kevin McDonnell